Just before midnight on May 26, 1972, Richard M. Nixon and Leonid I. Brezhnev met in St. Vladimir Hall in the Kremlin to sign an agreement that some have hailed as a path toward peace and other have condemned as a threat to American security. Whatever the judgment, the arms-limitation agreement that came out of that midnight summit is the most important turning point in big-power politics since the onset of the cold war.

Today, as the superpowers return to the bargaining table, what lessons can be learned from the first Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT I)? Cold Dawn is the definitive account of one of the first attempts to stabilize the superpower balance and to slow the race for strategic advantage. In John Newhouse's revealing book, the personalities, issues, and events in this first round of talks - which for many analysts are as far-reaching as the Congress of Vienna - lucidly and dramatically unfold. Writing with an insider's special knowledge, Mr. Newhouse traces the little-known background that led to the talk, unravels the mysteries of the weaponry at issue, clarifies the complexities of the diplomatic bargaining, and offers fascinating portraits of the key players on both sides.